nije jos gotovo, pa kad bude stavim ostatak slika...
Hey Guys!
So this is my first retro attempt. I currently have an s2k Retro by Larry. I am very handy and do ALOT of custom work, so I know I had wanted to maybe try a retro out, and if it turns out great (as it should) then I can make a few extra bucks.
I Plan to do fiberglass molds with the HID Planet Chrome Bezel ($50 one). Fiberglass won't be a problem for me, since I do it barely every week for different dash panels. Anyhow, everything will get painted Nighthawk Black Pearl (automotive paint), and the Amber side marker will remain..
2 weeks ago I order brand new OEM Replica Lights, I was refunded for the Passenger side and will get here soon (when it gets back in stock). So I got started on the driver side. I made the bracket that Viper had made a CAD sketching of..
Without further ado!
Brand new light! I am anal, I have to have perfect lense.
Some tape to sketch out the lines of the low beam
Ok, Ready for some cutting.
My brackets, no need for the paint, but I just had to, not pretty but they will do the job.
Then I realized that the circle was not going to be big enough, ah my poor nearly perfect circle :(
Then the spot near the rear of the low beam needed to be cut out. it was a hump for the reflector. Once it was cut out it left the surface with missing pieces. I took epoxy putty and rebuild the wall.
From here I was able to drill the 3rd hole and line up the projector. The projector is adjustable through the 3 allen wrench screws on the bottom. here is is all mounted up! You might noticed the left bracket, I had to re-dp the nut that attaches to the bolt.
Next I will wait for my HIDPlanet chrome bezels, then start the glassing!
I realized I did not need my Bezel to do the molds, so with that said I thought to myself how I could do this. A few minutes later a idea came to mind.
As you can see below I used a clamp on the projector. Later on this area will be cut out to fit the bezel.
At this point I stretched out my fleece and used hot glue at all the seams. I masked it off before hand. I opted to use hot glue because the resin once cured will act as a relase agent to the glue and help to release the mold from the tape.
Here it is trimmed up. I left a little extra fleece near the hi beam so that I have room to sand it perfect to match the contour of the hi beam
Then came time to fiberglass. I use B-440 Polyester Resin, not that cheap Elmers/Bondo crap.
I love my Dora Cups! They have to be paper or else the resin will melt it down, I love these things, they are cheap and I through them away after each use along with the paint brush. One time use for everything
Laying on the resin, gently. This was somewhat calming for me.
Set to dry!
I mentioned I am anal right? You will see in the following pictures! My anal-ness helps out with very clean work.
So from the last update, I got some work done. First I pulled the mold and trimmed it up to fit well. From here I got the basic contour of the hi beam from some duraglass. Then I laid 2 layers of 1.5 oz chop mat over the duraglass and the rest of the mold. I let that dry and picked it up a day later. I trimmed it up all smooth and did a test fit and the damn thing warped on me! One side would fit, and the other wouldn't. I fixed the problem by cutting the mold down the middle and fitting each side into its counter and temporary tacked it in with some CA Glue and Duraglass, Later I will glass the back of it as it is pretty strong as of now.
Now at this point the only thing I can work on is the Hi beam area since I am waiting on my HID Planet Chrome Bezels, so that prevents me from working the projector area since the hole will be made bigger to fit the bezel. Usually (well all the time) I will do all the filling with the Duraglass and Xtreme at once, but since I wanted to work on it, I just started working in one small section. I spent about 3 hours on the hi beam area. I think I got it the way I want!
Pics Below.
First off, I wanted to show the underside of the headlight housing. Here are the 3 adjustable screws.
All dry and ready to be trimmed, lines are drawn for reference.
Here it is all trimmed up the best it can be trimmed up before glass and filler.
Getting ready for Duraglass. I wanted to fiberglass on top of the duraglass for strength, because I needed to duraglass to get the basic shape of the hi beam area.
Time for glass. I use spray adhesive to create this mess lol. Well to temp hold the mat to the mold, or until it is resined.
Here are some pictures of the countless hours I spent filling sanding filling sanding. I must have re-filled alone at least 15 times on the hi beam area. Oh well it is HAS to be perfect, there is no other way I work. You can see in the middle where I cut the mold apart and put it back together.
Here is a few pictures of where I ended for the night. Keep in mind I usually wouldn't post pictures of one area filled and the rest rough but I am just working the hi beam area. The area I worked in the picture still needs filler, but tonight's focus was to get that basic shape.
Also, you might notice the little "desisn" I had to do on the lower contour of the hi beam. I could not carry the line into a point, because it just would not look right, so I just made it into a back slant. It turned out pretty good.
First, I started off by re-tapping everything and getting ready to get back to work. I wanted to make sure everything was protected before work was resumed
Then I got my HID Planet Chrome Bezels in, which will add a nice touch. I was actually waiting on these too, before I resumed work.
Time to do some beginning shaping
Then I got smart. I wanted the bezel to have some sort of "hidden" look, so that it looks like it is peaking out. So I came up with this little technique. Worked Great!
After it has all been shaped perfectly!
Now I can finally duraglass the rest of the mold and fix up any defects around the fiberglass mold
The hard part is done!
Almost there! I got a lot of much needed tedious work done since last update. I will let the pictures and explanations, show what I have done.
First off, I needed to do some more fiberglass reinforcing, so things got messy again. I needed to fiberglass the full backside. You can still see the seam where I cut and mended the pieces back together. Everything once glassed was strong as hell, but not heavy at all.
Here is it all trimmed back up again. I wanted to get the lines perfect where the mold meets the inner housing lines. I used duraglass to get it perfect. From here the contour around the Hi Beam somehow got completely off centered and messed up. Spent another hour on that to get it reshaped and perfect again.
My feelings lol
Now, I wanted to make some sort of bracket to center the mold up and hold it in nicely. Some people say that the mold will just sit in there, well that really doesn't float my boat too well. I used a L bracket. First I drilled a hole in the housing, then I positioned the bracket in a manner that the fiberglass mold would hit it when installed. From here I used some CA Glue and got the bracket to tack on the mold while the screw was still installed in the inner housing. I then removed the screw which left the L bracket attached to the mold.. I backed it up with an epoxy from here. Then I metal epoxied the nut on the bottom of the L bracket, so that I can just screw it right in without having to hold the nut somehow.. Works perfect and holds it in place like no one's business.
Next it was time for some Rage Xtreme, This I <3!!!
Got that spread and all sanded down, then primer-ed it, sanded it back down, primer-ed it, and I got a couple more sessions of that.
Next was the actual housing. Since it will be all painted, it has to be prepped correctly. First I sanded it all down, then gave it a wipe down with wax/grease remover. From here I primer-ed it and wetsanded it down, so it is smooth and ready to be painted.
and Ta-dah!!!!
Almost ready for paint, still needs some more sanding, but I couldn't resist!!
and some pictures of the Devilbiss!
